PROJECT: EURO-AUDITS THE EUROPEAN ROAD SAFETY AUDITOR TRAINING SYLLABUS APPENDIX E SURVEY RESULTS October 2007 A European Commission co-funded project
Appendix E Survey Results Contents: Survey Results page 1
EUROAUDITS survey results Countries with requirements to carry out RSA on all or part of their road network. The 20 countries within the European Union which have replied to our survey are the following: Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom (please, see map on 4.1). Amongst them, only 10 countries show requirements to carry out road safety Audits on all or part of their road network, as it is presented on the map above: Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and the United Kingdom. A brief description of road safety audit practices background in these Member States is provided: In Belgium there are not requirements for road safety audits yet, according to the Belgium Ministry of Infrastructure, neither a road safety audit training scheme. However, there are some documents and directives related to, which could give way to the adoption, in the future, of procedures and requirements to carry out road safety audits. Regarding training of future road safety audits, the expertise could be found at the Administrations. There are some points of contact with existing trainings at the university, though. In Czech Republic, according to the Transport Research Centre, it is the same case as in Belgium: currently there are no requirements for RSA. However, the Czech National Road 1
Safety Strategy, dated April 2004, presumes mandatory RSA before 2010, as well as subsequent mandatory training scheme, methodology and certification. In Denmark, the National Road Directorate indicates that there are not requirements but strong recommendations in order to carry out road safety Audits. Actually, the Danish Road Directorate has published the Manual of Road Safety Audit. There are training courses for auditors carried out by the Danish Road Sector Institution for Post-graduate Education and certified by the National Road Standards Board. In Estonia there are not requirements for road safety Audits but strong recommendations from consulting companies ordered by Estonian Road Administration. Safety conditions in Estonia determine the fact of carrying out road safety audits. Within the Estonian Road Administration there are some training courses for auditors certified by Tallinn University of Technology. In Finland, on the contrary, there are requirements to carry out road safety Audits which are compiled under the guidelines of Finnish Road Administration ( Safety audit for infrastructure projects, Road Safety Audit, 2001). They will take place on public road network. The Finnish Road Administration carries out voluntary road safety training seminars for auditors. In France, as well as in Finland, there are requirements to carry out road safety audits (Ministry Order, May 2001) on national free-road network and there is a road safety audit training scheme. It is mandatory to realise some training in order to carry out audits, according to the binding text. These courses are developed and organized by the Road Administration and certified by road inspectors. In Germany there are requirements to carry out road safety audits, and they are mandatory in most of the Federal States. The reference document is Guidelines for Road Safety Audits in Germany (2002). RSA affect mainly Federal and State roads. Regarding training courses, there are standardised ones, whose curriculum was financed by the Federal Ministry and supervised by the German Road and Transportation Research Association, and which are addressed to auditors and organised by an independent partnership of universities. In Greece there are requirements to realize road safety audits which affect the whole road network, especially national road network. The Greek Ministry of Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works is developing the whole scheme, whose firsts intends appeared between 1999 and 2000 and afterwards translated into the Road Safety strategic Plan 2001-2005. Regarding RSA training courses, auditors have attended courses provided by both private and public companies. In Hungary there are not requirements for RSA, but a recommendation from the Ministry of Economy and Transport and a guideline, issued by the Ministry and produced by Szechenyi Istvan University and invited experts from other organisations. There has been a road safety training course organized by the university and certified by the Hungarian Ministry of Economy and Transport. In Ireland there are requirements to carry out road safety audits and are mandatory on all national road network. The binding document is the National Roads Authority Design Manual for Roads and Bridges, which contains Standard HD19 Road Safety Audits, by the National Roads Authority, on behalf of the Department of Transport. There also exists in Ireland road safety training courses developed by a private company in conjunction with the National Roads Authority. In Italy it is the Italian Ministry of Public Works who has fixed the guidelines to carry out RSA. In theory these guidelines are indicated as mandatory. TMS in Italy has carried out some programmes for road safety audit and road safety inspection techniques training courses, which in some cases are certified by an Institution of Highways. In Latvia, there are mandatory road safety audits in all road traffic projects and designs. This system was created to cover all types of road. The binding document that determines the 2
procedures is the Governmental Act, defined as Regulations of Cabinet of Ministers, whose preparation falls over the Ministry of Transport. There is also RSA training scheme, to be accepted by the Government, and road safety auditors must have a certificate. This certificate has been proposed to be issued by the Ministry of Transport. In Lithuania road safety audits are being implemented and auditors have to be experienced. RSA affect national road network and it is the Lithuanian Road Administration the body which regulates them. However, no training courses have been developed yet. In Poland there are road safety audit voluntary requirements, which are recommended by General Directorate of National Roads and Motorways for selected projects of national roads. There were some guidelines developed by university contexts, but there is also an internal rule developed by General Director of National Roads and Motorways. A group of the Polish National Road Safety Program from Krakow and Gdansk Universities of Technology has developed some workshops and lectures as road safety auditors training course, which is mandatory for auditing designs of national roads. The entities responsible for its organisation and development are Krakow University of Technology, the Highway and Traffic Eng. Department and, in certain cases, road administration. The General Directorate of National Roads and Motorways certifies the road safety audit training courses. In Portugal there are not yet mandatory requirements for road safety audits, though there is some legislation on RSA and RSI (inspections) since 1998. The regulation is currently being prepared, for governmental approval, and it will extend RSA to all national road network. The body responsible for RSA legislation is the Portuguese National Road Safety Authority. However, regarding RSA training, CRP and the Technical University of Lisbon carry out two Road Safety Auditing Courses, certified by the National Engineering Organisation. In Romania there are requirements regarding road safety audits, which are compulsory in the cases of construction of new roads, rehabilitation/upgrading projects and urgent needs. They will be applied to the national road and motorways network. The document which regulates these procedures is the Road Safety Audit Manual in conjunction with the Romanian legislation and norms. Romania also counts with a RSA training scheme organized by a certified entity. Normally these courses are developed by private companies. In Slovenia there are no requirements in force to carry out RSA, and there is no experience of road safety audits procedures realized in any part of the Slovenian road network. Therefore, there in no road safety audit training scheme. In Spain there are no requirements to proceed with road safety audits and there are not standards available on them. However, there is a road safety audit training scheme promoted and organized by regional road administration, universities and the Spanish Road Association and are certified by different universities. As formally audits are not required, there is no obligation to have attended the training course. In The Netherlands there are no requirements to carry out road safety audits, which are still voluntary. So far, there are no restrictions concerning the kind of road affected and the Road Safety Audit document provides information on the possibilities and uses. The training of auditors is also voluntary. Finally, in the United Kingdom there are requirements to realize road safety audits and these should consider all highway improvement schemes on the national motorway and trunk road network. The standard which contemplates RSA is HD 19/03 Road Safety Audit (Design Manual for Roads and Bridges). Regarding the RSA training for auditors, there are not specific schemes in the UK and auditors do not have to attend training courses compulsorily. However, some universities, private companies and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents organize training on accident investigation, road safety engineering and RSA. 3